A Fortnite player dared the FBI to come to his door in voice chat. Then it did

"Let's see if the FBI is going to show up at my door because I'll shoot them motherf**kers too."

According to an FBI affidavit, a Fortnite player said those words over voice chat in September. Within days, the FBI did show up. He was arrested, charged in federal court and locked up to wait for his trial.

The man is Edward Frith, 29, from Fairhope, Alabama. He has pleaded not guilty. Everything he is accused of saying comes from court papers, not a trial.

The case went viral this week after the Fortnite news account HYPEX shared quotes from the affidavit. The post passed 2.3 million views in two days. Most replies asked the same thing: Wait, Fortnite records what we say?

What did the Fortnite player say in voice chat?

The quotes come from an FBI affidavit, a sworn statement an agent files to support a charge. The gaming site Aftermath got a copy and reported on it.

According to the affidavit, the player said he was letting all his rage out because he wanted to "literally m*rder somebody". He said he thinks about it "every day".

He also said he would one day be a murderer, Aftermath reports. He talked about people who push police into shooting them and said he was going to be "that guy".

Then came the line that went viral. He said he would shoot FBI agents if they came to his door.

Prosecutors also say he told other players that if he were ever arrested, it would probably be for "killing a cop", local station WALA reported. An FBI agent said the words written in the affidavit matched the audio files.

Photo: SankalpSasnur / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

How did Epic Games end up sending it to the FBI?

Epic did not wait for the police to ask. On 20 September, Epic contacted the FBI about a Fortnite account called WagesOfNinja, according to the affidavit.

Epic handed over recordings of the voice chat. The account had been used more than 1,700 times, most recently on 21 September, Aftermath reports.

The FBI then worked out who was behind the account. Things moved very fast after that.

Sources: Aftermath, WALA and Dexerto reporting on the court file.

The affidavit does not say exactly how Epic first heard the chat. Aftermath believes it came through Fortnite's voice reporting system, where another player hits report. Epic had not commented when the story spread.

What is he charged with?

A grand jury indicted him on one count of interstate threatening communications. That is a federal crime. It covers threats to hurt someone sent across state lines, and an online game counts because the chat travels over the internet.

Under US federal law, the charge carries up to five years in prison. Whether his words were a real threat or angry talk is what a jury will decide.

The case is in the US District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, which sits in Mobile. A judge there ordered him held in custody while he waits. His trial is expected in December. It is one of two FBI cases people could not stop sharing this week, next to a CIA officer accused of a $194 million fraud involving 298 gold bars.

Photo: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Does Fortnite record your voice chat?

Yes, in a way. Epic added voice reporting to Fortnite in November 2023, and this is the part most players did not know.

When voice reporting is on, your console or PC keeps a recording of the last five minutes of voice chat. It saves over itself all the time. Anything older than five minutes is deleted.

That audio stays on your own device, Epic says. It does not go to Epic's servers while you play.

It only leaves your device when someone in the chat sends a voice report. Then the last five minutes go to Epic's moderators, who listen and decide what to do. So whoever reports has to act fast, inside that five-minute window.

Games are not the only place where tech keeps notes on you. Amazon's AI recently wrote out a list of what it knows about its shoppers.

Text chat works differently. Epic keeps reported text messages for 30 days, Aftermath reports, and it also scans text chat for things like threats of real violence.

Can kids turn Fortnite voice reporting off?

No. Voice reporting is always on in any voice chat that includes a player under 18.

Players 18 and older can choose "Off When Possible". But that only works in parties of friends where everyone has picked the same setting. If one person in the chat has it switched on, everyone in that chat can be recorded.

Epic says the only sure way to avoid being captured is to mute yourself or switch voice chat off. Parents can control a child's voice chat through Epic's parental controls on the Epic account website.

How long does Epic keep the recordings?

Reported clips are deleted after 14 days, or after any ban ends if the ban is longer, Epic's help pages say. If a player appeals, Epic can keep the clip for up to 14 more days.

There is one big exception. If Epic needs a clip to obey the law, it keeps it for as long as the law requires. Epic's rules also say real threats can be reported to the police.

Photo: Official GDC / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Can you go to jail for what you say in an online game?

Most trash talk will never get anyone in trouble. Insults, rage and swearing are part of online gaming, and the five-minute window means a lot of it is never heard by anyone at Epic.

Threats are different. Courts look at whether words would be read as a real plan to hurt someone. Talking about killing people every day, and saying you will shoot the agents who come for you, is exactly what investigators take seriously.

What should every gamer and parent take from this?

A game lobby feels like a private room with friends. It is not.

Anyone in that chat can press report. The last five minutes can reach Epic within minutes. And Epic can pass it to the FBI, which in this case took three days to go from report to arrest.

The man in Alabama asked out loud whether the FBI would come to his door. The answer was yes, and it came through the microphone he was talking into.